Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has declined a request to host an event to mark Islam's holy month of Ramadan, two U.S. officials said, apparently breaking with a bipartisan tradition in place with few exceptions for nearly 20 years.I take that back. It's an insult to amateurs to use that word to describe Trumps foreign policy. "Criminally inept," maybe?
Since 1999, Republican and Democratic secretaries of state have nearly always hosted either an iftar dinner to break the day's fast during Ramadan or a reception marking the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of the month, at the State Department.
Tillerson turned down a request from the State Department's Office of Religion and Global Affairs to host an Eid al-Fitr reception as part of Ramadan celebrations, said two U.S. officials who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
This sort of stuff matters, for it sends a useful signal. George W. Bush may have been disengaged, at times, but he had pros in his state department who understood such things. Clearly Tillerson doesn't get it. Or he doesn't give a shit.
This stuff isn't quantum physics. But clearly it's beyond the grasp of the Trumpanzees who are making a shambolic attempt to run the Federal government.
7 comments:
I suspect Tillerson and Trump did this intentionally as an insult, and a message to their base. Never attribute to stupidity what you can attribute to malice.
That is really gonna help his travel ban in court, I would say. And by "help" I of course mean "help kill it once and for all".
-Doug in Oakland
D: That shouldn't matter. Either it is legal or it isn't. Hurt feelings shouldn't matter. Not for legal shit
And what about the "Separation of Church and State" (which doesn't exist in law or Constitutionality) that you folks keep (ahem) Trumpeting so loudly when it suits your purposes?
Easter egg Roll. National Prayer Breakfast. White House Xmas Tree.
Are you against all of them, as well? Or are you trolling?
Nope, not trolling, I just can't figure out why the line keeps moving. If we are gonna have National Prayer Breakfast, then yeah, ok. But then y'all can't cry "Separation of Church and State" whenever it suits you. And Easter Eggs are a pagan thing, really.
I'm just trying to find some logic here.
I would prefer to have no religious activity in the government whatsoever, but I don't get to have that.
And it doesn't have anything to do with "hurt feelings" just more evidence of bias against a particular faith, which under the first amendment is not legal.
-Doug in Oakland
B., "separation of church and state" is the action of not singling out a single religion for favored status. The objections you hear about prayers in meetings or before games generally arise when the locals deny a "different" type of "religion" the same right to lead an invocation or such.
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